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02 Jun CV Writing – Creative CVs

*dramatic music* Previously on TCC CV Series….*dum dum*
So we’ve examined the basic CV, those new to the industry and how to represent multiple CVs. As we work in a creative and visual industry, should a CV not be that way? This post looks at how they may work.

I will be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of “Creative CVs”. But hey, I’m a recruiter!

What I mean by ‘Creative CVs’ are those that are more than just text, and this can be anything from a small amount of graphic or image work to something that isn’t even recognisable as a CV. So this could be those that have a large number of images, logos, a stylised background, graphs to represent skills, character based CVs such as ‘Wanted’ posters, cartoon based. Anything that can only be sent as a PDF and altered in Photoshop or similar. An ‘infographic’ of a CV really.

We understand that our industry is a visual one so why should you not represent your CV in such a way? I agree that a good creative CV can be refreshing for an employer and demonstrate relevant skills, in particular for design or animation roles but there are issues with having only a creative CV to send. All the team at The Crewing Company have come across all kinds of CV from the very basic to beautiful and intricately designed CVs. We would always recommend if you do have a CV that has a large amount of graphics with it or is perhaps interactive online, that you also have a standard text only one that can be sent when needed and when appropriate.

One issue with ‘Creative CVs’ is they are much more difficult to update quickly. For example, you are applying for a Nuke role and your graphic heavy CV has listed your skills but Nuke is right at the bottom as it wasn’t popular when you were initially making the CV. The employer needs your CV there and then but you are working on a job so you’re unable to reshuffle the order. If you had a word document, you could quickly open on any computer or even tablet and resave and send. With ‘Creative CVs’, in how they are normally laid out, to add any credits from the next job, it may require a large amount of effort to reshuffle the CV to ensure it is still visually appealing. Due to their nature, ‘Creative CVs’ tend to use a lot of space with images or graphics that might not cover the vital aspects of a CV. To make way for a creative flourish, important information about employment history or education may need to be removed.

There will be times that clients are looking for certain details and are unable to find that on a creative CV straight away. Similarly, some employers load CVs into an internal system that search for key words. This might not be possible with a pdf CV.

I am constant LinkedIn User and often see creative CVs shared. There are so many different examples. For example, a great interactive resume that treated the employer to a video game style interaction across a course of the person’s history and skills. Even with great reviews from those viewing it, there are UI issues with this as you need to work to the end before getting their contact details. This should be easily found on others CV.

A couple of these examples are extremely creative and do get people talking about you, but many of them are supported by actual CVs. There are other ways to be creative, with a showreel or website that can demonstrate these elements. If you need tips on your showreel do take a look at our previous blog here.